Bugs and Kisses

Good Evening! This is a card Robin made for a sketch challenge on Operation Write Home's blog. The sketch had three rectangles in the middle of the card and the sentiment on the bottom. Recently, Robin and I purchased some stamps from Stampin' Up, which was our first time really using their products. Although I was a little skeptical at first, I have to say that I love their stuff. While I prefer clear stamps, all of the stamps we purchased from Stampin' Up were wood.

Anyone who has been following this blog probably knows that we love stamps that come with cute sayings! This card was made with the Bugs and Kisses stamp set, which comes with sayings such as 'bugs and kisses' and 'wishing you worm wishes on your bug day'. The kit also came with a wide variety of bugs or insects! We used Tombo markers as ink to stamp the bugs on white cardstock. The paper is 'To the Nines Speciality Paper' which also came from Stampin' up. Robin absolutely loves the paper and loves the fact that everything from them matches. Who knew you could find matching patterned paper, ink and ribbon in the same place! 

Stash Challenge

This week the new Operation Write Home blog had a "Stash Challenge" where the instructions were to use buttons and at least two patterned papers. Robin made this card and we thought it would be perfect for the challenge. The card is a solid baby pink Anna Griffin card from one of her card making sets. Robin used a postage stamp punch to cut out the little squares on the card. The patterned papers came from the same Anna Griffin set. Finally, she attached three white buttons onto the squares. A white ribbon was put on the bottom with two small hearts punched form the matching paper. The sentiment is a 'miss you' stamp from Amuse Stamps. While we have had some trouble attaching buttons, over time we have learned that Glue Dots work the best. The card is really fun and perfect for the soldiers to send home! 

We have made many different versions of this card. The possibilities are really endless! We have used white/off white cards with different blue papers and even some green papers. On each, we put different buttons and a different sentiment. Although the ribbon is not necessary, it does add a nice touch to the final card. We thought this challenge was quite fun, as we LOVE to use buttons on our cards and frequently use patterned paper. I hope you enjoy! 

Sunflower

Good Evening! I thought I would post this card as I fell in love with it when Robin made it last week. She had showed me the card with the sunflower alone, which was quite pretty. Yet, when she added that giant yellow button, the card became absolutely gorgeous. I have to say that we have always loved buttons, but rarely used them on our cards. In the past few weeks, we have been trying to incorporate more buttons into our work. At first we had trouble getting them to stick, but we learned that a glue dot is the perfect adhesive! 

Some of the first card sets and paper that we purchased were from Anna Griffin. A friend of ours always loved her stuff and I have to say that she got us hooked. At first I thought that perhaps the colors were too muted or the patterns were too delicate. Yet, over time I have come to love her products- the cards we make with her paper are always quite sophisticated and stunning. 

Robin made this card using a 12x12 piece of cardstock from Anna Griffin. The paper was tan with a brown floral pattern. She cut out the sunflower using the small square Clever Lever Punch. Then she carefully lined up the squares and attached them to a matching piece of brown cardstock. A few weeks ago we purchased a bag of random buttons at Michael's Craft Store. Robin used one of these buttons, a large yellow button with two small holes in the center of the sunflower. This button was probably a little less than an inch in diameter. I think it looks amazing on this card. Finally, the sentiment comes from Pebbles Inc. and is one of their 'thinking of you' rub-offs. The card is quite simple, yet very elegant. I hope you enjoy!

Heat It Up

For the past few weeks, Robin and I have been talking about trying to do some heat embossing. We bought a heat gun about a year ago and tried it soon after but the results were unfortunately disastrous. The stamping and powder application went smoothly but we had a lot of trouble with the heating process. The powder melted nicely and we saw that 'wave' of melting that we were told to look for. Unfortunately, the paper around the stamped image turned brown and the card smelled like burnt paper. After this we decided that perhaps embossing was not for us. Yet, about a week ago something changed. We were watching some card making videos online and saw someone emboss a background stamp. I watched this and was determined to try again. Robin went out a few days later and bought some embossing powder. Yet, the bad memories of our past experience kept us from trying it again. The embossing powder just sat on our kitchen table. 

This all changed last Wednesday. The special post on Operation Write Home's new blog was a tutorial about embossing- just what we needed! The timing was just too perfect. After my statistics exam Thursday morning, Robin and I decided to tackle our fears and try this once again. We cleared the table, and set up all of the materials we needed. Robin bought all types of embossing powders- some opaque and some translucent so we wanted to try each one. 

The animal stamps for this card come from the Stampin' Up 'Wild About You' stamp set. I stamped each image on colored paper using a clear Versa Mark ink pad. We liked the opaque white powder the best, so I used it for this card. After we had stamped everything, we plugged in the heat gun. To our surprise, the heating process went incredibly smoothly. The powder melted nicely and the finished images were gorgeous. 

I punched out the stamped animals using the Clever Lever circle punch. I then used the larger scalloped circle for the center image. The circles were mounted on a piece of embossed paper that we made in the Cuttlebug. I used 3D pop dots to attach the circles so that they were not flat on the card. Next, I placed a piece of pink ribbon on the bottom of the card. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set on navy paper. Feeling confident about the embossing process, I decided to emboss the sentiment as well. I hope you enjoy!

Stars and Stripes

We made this card for sketch#3 on Operation Write Home's new blog. It was really simple to make yet we thought it would be perfect for the heroes. The background of the card is a blue piece of paper with small white stars. This piece of paper was quite interesting, as it started off on one edge as light blue and gradually got darker and darker. Recently, Robin purchased two Clever Lever star punches so I though I would use them on the card. The larger stars are punched out of navy paper and the smaller ones are punched out of white. The white stars were attached to the navy stars with 3D pop dots so they stick up. I used a small heart button in the middle of the card. I really wanted to get some red onto the card so this seemed like a great way to do so. Finally, I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white card stock and punched it out using a circle Clever Lever Punch. I used a navy pen to do some faux stitching around the white strip on the bottom as well as the circle. I am not very good with the stitching, but with each card the lines seem to get straighter! Hope you enjoy!

Wild About You

I have always loved animal stamps. A few months back I saw some cards on the internet that used the 'Wild About You' stamp set from Stampin' Up. I was totally hooked on it and desperately tried to scour the internet to find a set for myself. Unfortunately, the set had been retired and it was incredibly hard to find. Luckily, I found a set on Ebay and it arrived a few days later. To my delight, the set came with an elephant, giraffe, lion, alligator, penguin and the adorable saying 'Wild About You'. There were also a few extras such as a flower. As soon as the set arrived I went a little crazy and made a bunch of animal cards. 

I made this card using the elephant stamp from the Stampin' Up 'Wild About You' set.  I stamped the elephant using Colorbox Red ink and stamped the ear separately with a pink water based marker. I then cut out the ear and attached it with a pop up dot to the elephant so it was raised. Using a small pair of scissors, I was able to cut out the elephant. I then took a strip of red Bazzil paper and attached it to the bottom of the card. Last year I bought a small (orange) Clever Lever circle punch for a school project in which I had to create my family tree. I never really thought I would use this small punch again, but it was perfect for this card. I used it to punch out dark and light pink circles and arranged them on the bottom and side of the card. I found some white buttons to attach to the bottom and some smaller circles (from a whole puncher) for the side of the card. I thought it would be fun to use the flower stamp that came with the set so I used markers once again to stamp it directly on the white card. Next, I attached the red elephant to the white card so that the trunk was right over the flower. It really looks like the elephant is carrying the flower!  Finally, I used the same pink marker to stamp the sentiment on the bottom of the card. To add a little bit of extra embellishment, I used a white gel pen to stitch along the bottom strip of red paper and attached two small 3D heart stickers on the top. 

OWH Challenge #2

Hello! I decided to make some cards this afternoon so I thought I would also post on the blog. I made this card for the Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #2. The sketch had a 2 inch strip down the left hand side of the card with a square in the middle that measured 2.5 x3.5. Finally, the sketch included a ribbon on the top. 

Although we have had this stamp for a while, I thought it would be fun to use it for this challenge. Unfortunately, I do not remember who made the stamp. I used colored pencils to color in the birds and blue Pebbles Inc. chalk for the sky. The chalk gives it a very delicate look which is nice for the sky. I then mounted the the stamp on Bazzil red and pearlized yellow paper. Around Thanksgiving, Robin and I won a prize at a local Scrapboking store that included a bunch of different papers. One of the sheets in the grab-bag was a piece of yellow and red check paper from Sassafras. The pattern is known as 'Daisy Dots'. I used this paper as the 2 inch strip for the background.  I then used a piece of beige ribbon to top off the design. The sentiment is from A Muse Artstamps. I used the same red paper that I used for the bird stamp to back the sentiment. Finally, I used glossy accents 3D liquid to add some dimension to the birds. Although it may be hard to see, the glossy accents makes it so that they are 3D which is really cool. I hope you enjoy the card!